Climate talks endgame hits equity hurdle

DOHA: The endgame of climate negotiations here began on Wednesday with India and China yet again getting sucked into the vortex of the fight. The small island nations and least developed countries (LDCs) began to target equity as the obstacle to a better climate deal even as they lowered their pitch for finances from developed countries.

Equity remains a non-negotiable issue for larger developing economies, including China and India, who would be expected to take greater action to reduce emissions in the next round. Both Beijing and New Delhi are worried about the burden being shifted unequally from those who have emitted greenhouse gases historically to those who may in the future.

Till the early part of the second week the small island nations and LDCs had publicly aligned closer to the other developing country partners in the G77+China group to make the developed countries spell out how they would ramp up finance from now to 2020 when they need to deliver $100 billion every year.

But on Wednesday, these countries, who had formed an alliance with the European Union (EU) at the Durban meet last December, seemed to shift their focus away from finance, claiming even a fuzzy notion of funds would make them happy. But they warned that equity could not be used to distract from increased emission reduction targets for all the countries between now and 2020.

The small island countries and LDCs tried to sell the idea that equity in burden sharing came in the way of increasing countries' commitments and should be put aside for now. Decoded, countries should not bother about comparing who was required to act and who actually was undertaking more emission reduction.

Countering the move, India and China both warned that a deal without equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibility (CBDR) for any future arrangements would not be acceptable. Both pointed out that studies showed the developing world had already committed greater reductions between 2012 and 2020 than the rich countries.

"When we talk of equity, it is often perceived as something opposed to ambition. Future arrangements must be built on this principle. How can we advance an ambitious global regime in the post 2020 period if it is not anchored in Equity and does not have assurance of access to financial resources and technologies?" asked Mira Mehrishi, who is leading the Indian delegation here.

Joint secretary R R Rashmi explained, "The idea of equity finds its place in two tracks of the negotiations but we have to make sure it is articulated in a manner that it gets operationalized and does not remain just as an ideal."

The Chinese head of delegation, Xie Zhenhua, too, reiterated that under future arrangements now under discussion the two principles were non-negotiable for his country.